Raspberry Pi comes to U.S., sells out in hours

By Stan Schroeder, Mashable

Updated 11:08 AM ET, Wed April 3, 2013

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – The Raspberry Pi has been shortlisted for the London Design Museum's "Designs of the Year" awards, with judges citing its affordability, power and accessibility to children. An exhibition accompanying the awards is showing off some of the creative uses of the hugely popular personal computer.

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – Gareth James built this stylish, personalized train departures board to keep him informed of the times of the next trains to Brighton, UK. "It's a little bit of art with a bit of techy-usefulness built in -- and it's proven really handy," he said. "No longer do I end up hanging around on the cold train platform."

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – Alyssa Dayan and Tom Hartley created AirPi, a cheap, home-based air quality and weather surveillance station. The team hope that others will replicate the device and feed their readings into their website, airpi.es.

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – Alastair Smith, a wireless technology expert at PA Consulting Group, holds up a Raspberry Pi in front of a cell phone tower. The team created a private mobile-phone network by connecting the RPi, a $25 singleboard computer, to a radio interface.

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – Tom Rees created a remote-controlled car out of Lego, operated using the console from a gaming system. "The project was a fantastic learning experience, though difficult and even disheartening at times. When it was completed, I wanted to share my findings and now I'm really pleased to see several other projects based upon this one which develop the concept even further," he said.

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – This aerial view of Norfolk, UK, with the North Sea in the distance, was taken at an altitude of about 36 km (22.4 miles) on a 40.5-kilometer (25.2-mile) flight by high-altitude ballooning enthusiast David Akerman. His RPi design is not being exhibited at London's Design Museum, but it clearly shows that the sky is not the limit for inventiveness. Akerman uses RPi to track his balloons and transmit images from near space. "It can take several photographs and then send the best image to transmit," he said.

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – Raspberry Pi is inspiring home inventors around the world. Ryan Price from Orlando, Florida, re-purposed this Bakelite Admiral television with a 15" LCD screen with an RPi to display video, pictures and other media. "The community that has formed around the Pi is nearly unmatched," he said.

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Photos:Different flavors of Raspberry Pi

Different flavors of Raspberry Pi – Tom Chipley from Memphis, Tennessee, used an RPi to create a mini laptop computer out of an old, broken portable DVD player. "I removed the laser and carriage and fit a Raspberry Pi into the area left vacant. I used a wireless keyboard to complete the little machine," he said.

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Story highlights

Raspberry Pi, the tiny, ultra-cheap, Linux-based PC, went on sale Monday in the U.S.

One model of the computer is already completely out of stock

The PC is the size of a credit card and costs only $25 or $35, depending on model

Raspberry Pi, the tiny, ultra-cheap, Linux-based PC, went on sale Monday in the U.S. through retailer Allied Electronics, but it's already out of stock.

The A version of the computer, which only costs $25, has 256MB of RAM, a single USB 2.0 socket, an HDMI, SD card, and 3.5 audio sockets, but no Ethernet port. Available only through Allied, the A is now completely out of stock for U.S. customers.

The $35 Raspberry Pi B is also out of stock at Allied, but it can be bought through Newark, another retailer, which only carries that particular model.